Ok first of all I'm gonna head this off by saying I acknowledge that I have not always been a good member of this forum. There's a reason I got the golden key for most improved poster. There were times that I was horrible to be around, irl and on here. Largely that was due to me being severely mentally ill. But I got better and I turned it around and my friends on this forum were a big help to me. As were the people who weren't my friends but were willing to give me a second chance. And I honestly believe that there are an outstanding number of members who feel the same I do.
This used to be a safe haven where people came because it was ok they were a mess. I know it's a Zelda forum but it became about friendship, not just games. It's died off for a number of arbitrary reasons, for example the fact that Zelda WiiU hasn't surfaced, the HH killed theory, etc etc. But people still came back here to talk to their friends and have discussions even if sometimes those discussions got out of hand. This is why we got new staff last year, so those problems would be resolved. And you know what, they were resolved for the most part. But then, a knot of users who contribute very little to the actual forums basically started low-level rumour spreading and gossip about the staff and some of the active members. This created a hell of a lot of negative feeling over time. These are people I got on with until I got into a relationship with someone they viewed as 'toxic', and suddenly I felt like public enemy number 1. Now, to have experienced that myself, I would be able to point fingers, but lets be real, nobody needs to, everybody knows exactly who those people are. And nothing gets done. The staff members who solved the issues and worked really hard on the tech side too, have quit because of this and the fact that other people feel that because they have friends among that group they don't need to help anyone but themselves. If this was a school playground it would be considered bullying, pretty much.
Now who are the toxic ones, the people who happened to be disliked by that knot of users, or the knot of users that spent a lot of time and effort on casting the people they disliked in a bad light?
I would suggest making an actual effort to put aside your personal feelings and solve the problem. That's your job as a staff member. Listen to what the community is telling you. If you want the fun of the job and none of the responsibility you should not be doing it. I mean no disrespect to anybody here. As far as I'm concerned I get on with the current staff. But put your thinking caps on. Don't cast this off as people complaining, it's people looking for an outlet to save something that has been important to them. Nobody should be brushed aside or punished for that.